Catches of the weekCatches of the week from the Narooma News fishing page...

THE kingfish season continues, with water temps at Montague Island hovering around 21c.

There is currently a wide variety of sizes of kingfish, ranging from 60cm to reports of very large fish over 15kg seen by divers - but not landed by fishers at this stage.

Most fish are in the 67 - 91 cm range, and you need to be prepared as one day they want squid and the next day they will only take livies.

The best catches are coming from fishers with an intimate knowledge of the local area and those fishing on charter boats.

For those fishers new to the area, speak to the crew at one of the local tackle shops for the latest information on kingfish and large bonito.

Just to clarify a point raised by a concerned member of the non-fishing public, dolphinfish are not related to actual dolphins.

Dolphinfish or mahi mahi (also known as dorado) are extremely fast swimming pelagic predator fish, they are one of the fastest growing fish in the ocean, and also one of the most colourful, and importantly one of the most tasty.

At the moment there are schools of mahi mahi just east of Montague Island, with some up to over 1 metre in length.

While the water temp stays around 21c try trolling small skirted lures at different distances behind your boat, and remember the size limit for dolphinfish is 60cm.

Charter boat 'Dreamtime' landed a small northern bluefin (about 2kg) after seeing a large 'bust up' of fish north of Montague, they also reported losing another fish around 20kg.

A good sign of things to come on the local tuna fishing scene for June and July.

Nick Cowley after a Monday trip reported good numbers of small yellowfin tuna around but only 2-10kg in size fish, the odd 50+ kg tuna starting to turn up and should improve in the coming weeks along with albacore, the morning resulted in a 10kg yellowfin and albacore taken on a jig.

Again some unusual fish caught this week, with charter boat 'Playstation' landing a “grinner” while fishing at Montague. This unusual fish is a rare visitor to these waters

Starting to get very repetitious, but the chinaman leatherjackets are still around in plague proportions.

Phone calls made to both State and Federal fisheries agencies failed to shed any light on why these are here, only to say that the commercial catch is increasing.

If you start getting your gear bitten off, it is suggested that you move to another depth range to try and get away from these pests.

Tip of the week: To clear up an issue with the English language: 'Trolling' is when you tow lures behind a boat, 'trawling' is what commercial fishers do when they tow nets behind their boats.

Joke of the week: How does a group of dolphin’s make a decision?…Flipper coin!

NSGFC members enter yellowfin comp

TWO Narooma Sport and Game Fishing Club boats fished the Canberra Yellowfin Tournament held out of Bermagui over the three-day weekend of May 17, 18 and 19.

Peter Vaughan with crew John Cathor fished his 'Black Pearl' for some yellowfin up around the 30kg and large mahi mahi, which were tagged and released.

Lots of striped tuna were also encountered in the fabulous weather that coincided with the tournament.

Mick Roberts and Bec Fenton on board their boat ‘Mickey Finn’ tagged and released two mako sharks, had a ball on the big striped tuna but were unlucky on the yellowfin.

Closer to Narooma, Brou Beach fished well for Sue and Les Waldock with some of the best salmon caught for quite some time landed last Thursday. Jan and Chris Hemmingsen continue to catch flathead in Corunna Lake and tailor are active up near the power lines in Wagonga Inlet where an enormous amount of baitfish have congregated.

Don't forget our clubhouse (and licensed bar) is open every Friday from 4.30pm for those great sunsets we are currently having.

The Elliots go carp fishing

THE Elliot family including Mick and young fellas Anthony and Matthew of Narooma recently went on a family fishing trip to Abercrombie near Bathurst.

During the afternoon the lads caught 10 European carp and one very flashy looking mirror carp.

This was the first time the boys Anthony and Matthew had caught carp and they really loved it.

Anthony was also lucky to have caught a rare and native Macquarie perch, which he successfully returned to the water.

The carp were not so lucky…

If you have gone on a fishing trip recently, near or far, send in your fishing yarn to the fishing editor at stan.gorton@fairfaxmedia.com.au as we would love to publish it!!